At times, the Edmonton Oilers looked like salmon trying to swim upstream from the bottom of Niagara Falls.
Struggling to make any progress against a torrent of Washington Capitals shots Monday night — 22 in the first period, 19 more in the second — it was only a matter of time until the lost cause ended up dead on the rocks.
Sure enough, in a game that wasn’t even remotely close anywhere but the scoreboard, the Oilers took their last gulp of air midway through the third period and disappeared under the water for good.
The 3-2 defeat flattered the home team on a night they spent the entire game in scramble mode. Washington simply owned the puck. Only Stuart Skinner kept things from getting ridiculously lopsided anywhere but the shot clock.
The Oilers were down Evander Kane, Zach Hyman, Ryan McLeod and Warren Foegele, but the Caps were also hurting, minus Tom Wilson, Nick Backstrom, Dmitry Orlov and starting goalie Darcy Kuemper. So call it even.
But it wasn’t even.
The Oiler didn’t so much play the first period as they survived it. Barely.
They got absolutely caved in within the first 13 minutes, outshot 18-4 and relying on goaltender Stuart Skinner to keep them in a game they could have easily been blown out of by the first intermission.
He did, stopping all 22 first-period shots to somehow keep it scoreless at the intermission.
The goals everyone expected to see with the likes of Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and Alex Ovechkin in the house started flowing in the second period.
It started with Brett Kulak’s first of the season giving Edmonton a 1-0 lead at 1:44, the Lars Eller tying it up at 7:25. Edmonton grabbed momentum for minute or so when McDavid knocked a John Carlson pass out of mid-air on the penalty kill and scored on a shorthanded breakaway, but TJ Oshie scored on a tic-tac-toe setup that Skinner had no chance on on the same power play.
McDavid has become money on the breakaway, burying two in the last two games.
“Early in my career it was an area of weakness, something that I needed to improve,” he said. “As my career’s gone on I’ve gotten better and better, I’m comfortable being in that spot.
“I’m just keeping it a little more simple, I think. I’m not saying that I can’t make a nice move, I’m just being a little more simple with it, I think.”
The goal is his league-leading 22nd and his him on pace for a career high.
“I just seem to be getting some opportunities and maybe shooting the puck a little more,” he said. “And not always deferring to the pass.”
It was 2-2 after 40 minutes but the Oilers were still getting crushed in the balance of play, outshot 41-19.
Skinner started his 14th game for the Oilers, which is already closing in on the appoint of games (about 22) he was expected to play all season. But he’s been better than the Oilers expected, and Jack Campbell has been worse, so the ratio is running 50-50 between the two, and will likely tilt in Skinner’s favour going forward if Campbell can’t find his game.
The Caps picked up their first lead of the game on a breakaway goal from Nic Dowd, who hadn’t scored in 19 games, at 7:13.
McDavid and Draisaitl had 23 points in Edmonton’s previous five games but bogged down in the first 40 minutes with Jesse Puljujarvi replacing Hyman, who’s out after being crosschecked across the head by Montreal’s Joel Edmundson. The two of them combined for one shot, McDavid’s shorthand breakaway, in the first two periods.
After 40 minutes, Woodcroft dropped The Cooler to the second line, and then the third, while moving Kailer Yamamoto, back after missing 11 games with head and neck issues, to the top line.
YAMO HITS 200
Yamamoto’s first game back since Nov. 8 in Tampa Bay was also the 200th of his NHL career. Call it bitter-sweet.
“It’s been a tough start to the year,” said the 24-year-old winger. “It’s tough, but at the end of the day you have to keep moving forward. I’m back in the lineup and fired up.
“I had a lot of good long talks with the docs. They gave me a couple of extra days, which doesn’t hurt. I trust them and the process they have for me. I think they have my best interests in mind.”
Yamamoto likes to get in the muck and play hard, a style he plans on continuing despite the 11-game setback.
“I don’t try to look at the injury part too much, to be honest,” he said. “It’s hockey, it happens, there are a lot of injuries. I just have to get back to my game — hitting and playing that high-energy game that I‘ve played since I’ve been here.”
Twitter.com/rob_tychkowski
rtychkowski@postmedia.com
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